The Seattle Great Wheel is the largest observation wheel on the west coast, standing 175 feet tall.

The wheel has 42 fully-enclosed gondolas. Each gondola seats up to eight people, meaning the wheel can hold over 300 passengers at any given time.

The wheel extends nearly 40 feet beyond the end of the pier, over Elliott Bay.

Our thanks to Anita Elder of the Mountaineers Photography group who orgaized this event.

The Mountaineer Photography group met on the pier next to the Aquarium shortly before 7:00 p.m. The light show does not operate every night so we are truly grateful to Anita for making us aware that this was a special occasion. Go to the Big Wheel web site for information on the light shows.

Thanks to Anita for giving us the formula for taking these kind of pictures. Manually set your camera to approximately five or six seconds, set the IOS to 100, and the lens to an f stop of 20 or higher for the best effect.

As twilight ended,a full moon rose between the skyscrapers in downtown Seattle. Note the full moon to the left.

Eventually we decided to change location and started moving closer to the Big Wheel.

One of the biggest yachts in the world is moored in Elliott Bay. The Serene, a $330 million, 440-foot private yacht belonging to a wealthy Russian vodka distributor, pulled into Seattle’s Pier 90 recently, and we took these pictures on September 14.